The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Oeko-Institut in cooperation with the United Nations Foundation (UNF) would like to draw your attention on the Joint International Workshop: Spotlight on Bioenergy and Water which took place on the 5th and 6th of July 2010 in Paris, France.

In a world already facing water stress, largely due to over 70% of freshwater being consumed by the agricultural sector, water has been identified as a potentially limiting factor for bioenergy development. Depending on where and how bioenergy development takes place, it could further increase the pressure on water resources, or leverage the introduction of efficient water management techniques, increase water absorption capacity of soil in dry areas, or improve access to water by providing energy for pumping and cleaning of water. It is hence critical to bring further clarity to the issue and help inform decision-makers in governments and industry, based on available scientific knowledge.

The workshop brought together bioenergy and water experts from different regions of the world to:

• discuss areas of critical importance, exchange experiences on ways to address potential risks, and identify needs for further research,
  
  
• start to prepare a report on the bioenergy and water nexus, building on available science but without rehashing the general water debate.
  
  
• provide a starting point to engage in the development of sustainable water use strategies for bioenergy developments
  

Workshop participants will contribute to the drafting of the report, by teaming up around self-selected chapters, to deliver a joint report that will serve as the reference document to inform decision-makers in governments and industry.

The draft outline of the report kicked off the process, and it is expected to change, becoming further refined and amended with milestones on ‘who is doing what by when’ as a result of the discussions at the workshop.

Following are the presentations given during the course of the two-day workshop:

Bioenergy & Water Nexus - Berndes
Water and Bioenergy - Jewitt
Water in the GBEP Criteria - Fehrenbach
Watershed Control and Improvement - Unfried
Water-Bioenergy Indicators - Bonnet
System Boundaries - Fingerman
The Role of Policy Formulation - Moraes
Environmental Flows - Vugteveen
Water for Bioenergy Crops - Diaz-Chavez
Water Indicators for Bioenergy - Perkins
Water, Water Everywhere - Gheewala
Water Requirements and Options - Wani
A Bottom-up View - Yacob
Exploring the Variability - Yeh
Biofuel Production in South Africa - Jewitt & Kunz
Assessment of Bioenergy Crops - Ramos
Water Quality Aspects - Verhoest

Please find the list of the workshop's participants here.

Related Documents

Issue Paper on bioenergy & water (PDF - 1.27MB)

Berndes Fraiture - Biofuels and Water (PDF - 457KB)

Berndes(2002) - Bioenergy and Water: Largescale Bioenergy (PDF - 351KB)

Berndes(2008) - Water Demand Global Bioenergy Production (PDF - 809KB)

Fall - Water Quality and Bioenergy (PDF - 98.4KB)

Fingerman et.al.(2010) - Water Ethanol (PDF - 436KB)

Iddri(2009) - Water and Biofuels in 2030 (PDF - 6.98MB)

IFEU_OEKO(2009) - Biomass Certification: Focus on Water (PDF - 735 KB)

Suh et.al.(2009) - Embodied water in ethanol (PDF - 2.74MB)

Wani - Unlocking Potential of Rainfed Agriculture (PDF - 14.7KB)

Wani et.al.(2009) - Jatropha and Pongamia: Improving Livelihoods (PDF - 1.80MB)

Wani et.al.(2009) - Rainfed Plantations on Wastelands in India (PDF - 2.28MB)

Winrock(2009) - The Role of Water in Sustainable Biofuels (PDF - 2.77MB)